Continent Death: Euthanasia in Europe

Wesley J. Smith

Holland fast becoming Europe's center of death.

December 23, 2003

Too many people think with their hearts instead of their brains. Wanting the world to
suit their desires, when faced with hard truths to the contrary, they refuse to face
facts they don't want to believe. This common human failing has a name:
self-delusion.

Self-delusion is rampant in the euthanasia movement. Most proponents recognize that it
is inherently dangerous to legalize killing. But they desperately want to believe that
they can control the grim reaper. Thus, they continue to peddle the nonsense that
"guidelines will protect against abuse" despite overwhelming empirical evidence to the
contrary.

Euthanasia has been around long enough and practiced sufficiently enough for us to
detect a pattern. Killing is sold to the public as a last resort justified only in cases
where nothing else can be done to alleviate suffering. But once the reaper is allowed
through the door, the categories of killable people expand steadily toward the acceptance
of death on demand.

The classic example is the Netherlands, where doctors have been allowed to euthanize
patients since 1973. Dutch death regulations require that euthanasia be strictly limited
to the sickest patients, for whom nothing but extermination will alleviate overwhelming
suffering -- a concept in Dutch law known as force majeur. But once mercy
killing was redefined as being good in a few cases rather than being bad in all
circumstances, it didn't take long for the protective guidelines to be viewed widely as
impediments to be overcome instead of important protections to be obeyed.